Move over, Ms L!

Hi all, wondering why you are looking at this jumbled up page? This is due to the fact that Facebook didn't like our url since it starts with wog, so we have been forced to move the blog. This was some time ago, and we have placed a script which would automatically send you to our new location. Obviously, this hasn't worked for all of you, since we have just finished moderating some of your comments which appeared on this site recently, and not on our new (and improved!) site. So what we're saying is head on over to our new site, and update your bookmarks!

Monday 30 November 2009

Liddypool: Birthplace of The Beatles


Liddypool is the first major book to concentrate solely on The Beatles and Liverpool, covering their rise from childhood in the 1940s and obscurity to their triumphant civic reception at Liverpool Town Hall on 10th July 1964, when the city said goodbye to the Fab Four, their favorite sons, and shared with the world the most famous quartet in the universe. Bedford uses local knowledge and eyewitness testimony to chart every band member and name-change and lineup, from The Black Jacks to The Beatles: the story of the "Fab 27".
The author, David Bedford, is a life-long Beatles fan who grew up in the Dingle, Liverpool, at the bottom of the street where Ringo Starr was born; attended the same school as the famous drummer – though many years later – and has been involved as a parent and governor at Dovedale School, where John Lennon and George Harrison attended; he has lived by Penny Lane for 20 years. Bedford is also a feature writer for The British Beatles Fan Club since 2000. He has been interviewed on BBC Radio and several national British newspapers about his knowledge of the Beatles. He was most recently chosen by Paul McCartney’s production team to lead and direct the film crew around McCartney’s childhood haunts for the pre-show film on his Back in the World tour.
The author discusses his book on BBC Radio Merseyside with Spencer Leigh's "On The Beat" programmme.
BBC iPlayer
The online version will only be available for the next few days, so be sure to catch it while it's there!

- 336 full colour pages
- 800 images
- 108 Beatles photos
- Rare and unseen images

Beatles Advent Calendar


Here is the Beatles Christmas Calendar for 2009. Every day you get to open a new door until December 24th. Behind each door, there's either a YouTube video or something else. Some times it's even something extra! You must allow pop-up windows to make use of the calendar.
Bookmark this post, so you can return here each day for a new calendar surprise! Click on the pic to open the calendar page.

Friday 27 November 2009

BBC Radio 2 Beatles programme


As part of Radio 2's Great British Songbook, Bob Harris investigates the songs the Beatles gave away. The fevered excitement that accompanied every Beatles release in the 1960s is well documented but less is known about the music written, though not necessarily recorded or released, by the Beatles during the same decade.

Whilst the Beatles were constantly in the charts, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison were also supplying other artists with a number of hits...and the occasional miss! Bob Harris delves into these recordings by Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, Mary Hopkin, The Foremost, Cilla Black, Jackie Lomax, Doris Troy and others. Along the way he uncovers some forgotten gems, such as the theme tune for a TV series starring Stanley Holloway; music from a Boulting Brothers film called The Family Way; and hears first hand from Sir Paul McCartney about being contacted by Frank Sinatra for a song. Paul also talks at length about his approach to writing in the 1960s; the songs given to Tommy Quickly, Peter and Gordon, Chris Barber and PJ Proby; as well as those written exclusively for Cilla Black.

Amongst other interviews recorded specially for the programme, Mary Hopkin talks about recording with McCartney in the studio; Johnny Gentle (who was backed by The Beatles on his 1960 tour) recalls Lennon's contribution to I've Just Fallen For Someone; Billy Hatton of The Fourmost remembers John and George's version of the group's debut hit Hello Little Girl; and Billy J. Kramer admits to the fatal error of turning down a song that would eventually become one of the most performed works in recorded history.

Norwegian edition of Bad To Me by Billy J Kramer

These interviews are accompanied by BBC archive material of George Harrison describing how Badge, the song he co-wrote for Cream, got its name. The programme also features new interviews with Sir George Martin, the producer of a number of these records, and Cilla Black, whose demo recording of Step Inside Love (featuring Paul on guitar) receives a rare outing on radio. We also hear George Harrison's early recorded performance of Sour Milk Sea, the song he gave to Jackie Lomax.
Broadcast: Saturday 28 Nov 2009 at 22:00 on BBC Radio 2. Duration: 60 minutes
Visit BBC Radio 2 on the web to listen online.

A little tale of two little boys

"A little tale of two little boys" (or the Lennon - McCartney vs McCartney - Lennon controversy) was an inspired article I wrote in 2002, following the uproar in Beatles fan circles regarding Paul McCartney's so-called "reversal" of the composers credits on his live album "Back in the US"/"Back in the World". Lots of otherwise intelligent people sided with the Yoko Ono version of the story here, which I suspected was because they didn't know the full history of the Lennon-McCartney - McCartney-Lennon credits. I was thinking about this article for a couple of days, and then I sat down and wrote the entire piece in one go in English, and published it online. I do believe this was the first time I wrote a complete article in English, and I did it because I was aiming it at the U.S.A. audience. Not long after that, I was approached both by the editor of the US "Daytrippin' Magazine" and the editor of "Beatlefan", who both wanted to print my article. Since "Daytrippin'" was the first to ask, thet's where it got printed. Now here's the article.

A Little Tale of Two Little Boys (or the Lennon - McCartney vs McCartney - Lennon controversy)

Once upon a time there was two little boys. Their names were John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Paul wrote songs. One of his songs was called "I lost my little girl". He was only 14 at the time. John was impressed and wanted to start writing songs, too. He was 16. So he wrote one called "Hello, little girl". Cheeky devil. Sometimes the two of them would assist each other in writing a song, and sometimes they would write complete songs together.

There was never a rule about it, like one wrote the lyrics and another the tune. More often it would be that one was stuck with where the melody should go after a verse and a chorus and the other would think of a "bridge" or a "middle 8", a different section. The boys wanted to be big time songwriters, along the likes of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Leiber and Stoller or Goffin and King. It was a young world, musicwise. So they agreed that when they eventually released the songs they had written, they would put both their names on every song, be it a Paul-song, a John-song or a collaboration.

Paul once wrote a song he tentatively called "Seventeen". It went: "Well she was just seventeen, never been a beauty queen". John protested, "No no, you should go 'you know what I mean'!" Cheeky devil. So Paul followed his suggestion, finished the song and renamed it "I Saw Her Standing There". It was almost completely a Paul-song, even though John had contributed to half a line. They both agreed on this. Suddenly, when they were 20 and 22 their pop combo got a record contract and the writers got a publishing contract! Big time was lurking around the corner. So they released a single, "Love Me Do" (Lennon - McCartney). It struck the charts! And the next year they released another, "Please Please Me" (McCartney - Lennon). It became a no.1 hit! So the group (now known as 'The Beatles') released their first long-playing record, "Please Please Me (with Love Me Do and 12 other songs)". They didn't have too many songs written that they were please pleased enough with to record, so some of the songs they recorded was written by others.

This is how the songwriting credits were presented on this, their first LP: McCartney - Lennon. The LP was an instant hit and went to the top of the LP charts in Great Britain for weeks and weeks. The songs from their first single, Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You were now credited to "McCartney - Lennon", the names were now repositioned.



Next up, the boys released their third single, "From Me To You" (McCartney - Lennon).

The Beatles decide to take a break after this. They go on holiday. Three of them go to Santa Cruz, Tenerife, while John (the cheeky devil) decides to spend some time with the Beatles gay manager, Brian Epstein, in Barcelona, Spain.

After their holidays, the boys has an appointment with their manager. Paul turns up a bit late, and when he finally arrives, he is informed by John Lennon and Brian Epstein that they have decided that the songwriting credits should hereafter read "Lennon - McCartney" instead of "McCartney - Lennon". Cheeky devils. Paul is dismayed but gives in, seeing as he had turned up late and all that.

And so it came to pass that on all records released after this meeting, starting with the "She Loves You" - single, the credits were written in the new fashion, thus establishing the young songwriting team of Lennon and McCartney along the Rodgers and Hammerstein et al ones. Both boys continued writing songs alone and together, and still honored the mutual agreement they both had made so long ago about putting both their names on their songs.

Their band, The Beatles continued making singles, EP's and LP's for seven years and the songwriting team of Lennon and McCartney turned out hit after hit for the band to record. On one occasion, John Lennon wrote a song called "Give Peace A Chance", which he released with another band, "The Plastic Ono Band". But the Beatles were still together, so he credited the song as always to John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Eventually, the boys fell out with each other and the Beatles broke up. John started writing songs together with his wife, Yoko Ono, and Paul collaborated with his wife, Linda McCartney. John had a few hits, Paul had lots. After a period of time, John and Paul reconciled as friends, but never wrote more songs together. About 10 years after the break-up of the band, John Lennon was murdered on the street outside his new home in New York, by a deranged madman. The world mourned, especially those who had loved the Beatles and their music.
Seven years passed, and the world was experiencing a media change, the CD's were taking over as the new format to release records. So 14 of the Beatles LP's were re-released as CD's, starting with 'Please Please Me'. And once again, record buyers could witness what the early songwriting credit had been: McCartney-Lennon. The release of the Beatles on CD spawned another generation becoming aware of the incredible talent of the group and the composers.



After the death of John Lennon, his widow Yoko Ono became the keeper of his flame and had an equal say when business decisions concerning the Beatles were the issue, alongside Paul, George and Ringo Starr, the bands drummer. In matters concerning the songs that were credited to the Lennon and McCartney songwriting team, she had an equal say to that of Paul McCartney, albeit they both had little influence, seeing as most of their songs were now owned, incidentally, by Michael Jackson.

Ono continued to release records by John Lennon, some of them compilations of earlier releases, some of them containing hitherto unreleased material from his archives. One of the compilations was "Lennon- Legend", a sort of a 'greatest hits' kind of CD. On this CD however, the name of Paul McCartney was totally omitted from the songwriting credit for "Give Peace A Chance". A misprint? An oversight? Cheeky devil? We don't know. And we didn't hear any official complaints from Paul. Indeed, Paul released his own version of this song on one of his own CD-singles, taped at a concert in 1990 in John and Paul's hometown of Liverpool, as a tribute to John. It was a medley of John's songs, also comprising "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Help!", and the medley was collectively credited to "Lennon/McCartney".

Along comes 1994, and the Beatles company Apple has finally wrangled itself out of all the legal hassles with the record company EMI that had existed since the group's break-up 25 years earlier. "Time takes Time", to quote Ringo Starr. Apple is now free to start releasing "new" Beatles CD's comprising hitherto unreleased live, radio, demo and studio recordings by the group. The board members of Apple, Paul, George, Ringo and Yoko are once again finding themselves in business meetings, deciding what to do and what to release. In one of this meetings, Paul decides to address the question of songwriting credits. His idea is that they should read "Lennon/McCartney" on the songs the pair collaborated the most on, "Lennon/McCartney" on the songs that were actually John-songs, and "McCartney/Lennon" on the songs that are actually Paul-songs, like "I Saw Her Standing There". This is not new. Paul himself applied this method of thinking way back in 1976, when John was still alive, on his release of "Wings Over America" - a concert album that had a few songs on it from the Beatles era.

John didn't say a word about this. He didn't complain that Paul had "reversed" the songwriting credit. For John, this was OK. It's Paul's record, and Paul is entitled to write whatever he likes on the record cover, as long as they are both credited. John didn't threaten to sue. He didn't ask his lawyers to "see into it". John did nothing! Nada! Zip! And he used to be such a cheeky devil. Not trying to read John's mind about this, but this writer's theory is that John probably saw Paul's point. After all, John knew that the Beatlessongs on "Wings Over America" were mainly, or completely, Paul's own compositions.



Back to the Apple board meeting: Yoko ono declines. Product released by The Beatles should have the "Lennon/McCartney" songwriting credit where appropriate. And Paul loses. Again. Even though he met on time this time. Apple releases "The Beatles Live At The BBC"(1994), "Anthology 1"(1995), Anthology 2", "Anthology 3"(1996), "Yellow Submarine Songtrack"(1999) and "1"(2000) with the songwriting credit of "Lennon/McCartney".

On "Anthology 2", the first take of the very famous and hugely successful song "Yesterday" is going to be included. So far, the world had only heard the second take of this song, which was included on the LP "Help!" in the United Kingdom, and released as a single in many other countries. "Yesterday" was a song that came to Paul McCartney in a dream. He woke up and played it on the piano next to his bed, and then struggled for some time to come up with the now familiar lyrics. The song had always been a McCartney composition, and Paul was the only Beatle present on the record. This was one of the reasons why The Beatles didn't want this song to be released as a Beatles-single in the UK, it was too much of a McCartney solo effort. John Lennon had always agreed that this song was Paul's completely, still it was published as a "Lennon - McCartney" composition, Paul still honouring the mutual agreement that the two little boys had made so long ago. When Apple was about to release the song on "Anthology 2" however, he wanted to release it with the names of the composers reversed to "McCartney - Lennon". The version (take one) on "Anthology 2" is even more of a McCartney solo-effort than the familiar take two, because it doesn't have string overdubs, thus Paul is the only living human being present on the record, strumming his guitar, singing and humming. Paul's suggestion was vetoed by Yoko Ono, allegedly causing several already printed covers for the "Anthology 2" to be destroyed and new ones printed.

Along comes 2002 and Paul McCartney undertakes a massive and highly successful tour of the United States (leaving the sales figures for the simultaneously ongoing Rolling Stones-tour in the dust behind him). He decides to release an album from the tour and entitles it "Back in the U.S.". On this concert recording, there are quite a few songs from way back when Paul and John was a songwriting team. Paul does exactly the same as he already did in 1976 on "Wings Over America", he put his own name first. "Composed by Paul McCartney & John Lennon". But now John's not around anymore to not react to this. Yoko is around. She acts. She's asking her lawyers to "see into it". She instructs her spokesman Elliot Mintz to start a debate about it. She should have taken a history lesson first. This is a non-issue. A storm in the proverbial tea-cup.

In fact, one record featuring John did actually reverse the songwriting credit for "I Saw Her Standing There", the "McCartney - Lennon" - composition from the "Please Please Me" album. On a concert recording with Elton John, John introduces the song like this: "We're gonna do a number from an old estranged fiancee of mine, poor Paul". Cheeky devil. The recording was released as a single in 1981, after John's death and the credit looks like this:



When the song "Please Mister Postman" was first listed on the LP With The Beatles in 1963, the songwriting credits read: "Please Mister Postman (Holland)". When "With The Beatles" was re-released on the CD medium in 1987, the credit suddenly read: "Please Mister Postman (Dobbin-Garrett-Garma-Brianbert)". The latter presented a far more accurate description of who composed said song than the former, yet there was no nostalgic public outcry over this.
On the album "Beatles For Sale" (1964), the final song on the album is identified as "Kansas City (Leiber - Stoller)". This credit was the same throughout the sixties and the seventies. In the early eighties however, it was discovered that the Beatles actually performs a medley of two songs on this track, "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey". On all later pressings of the LP and on all CD's this has been corrected, and "Little Richard" Penniman's name has been added to the composer credits. Thus, the composer credits of these two songs now reflects the truth much better than they originally had.
This logic however, is simply not applied when it comes to the "Lennon - McCartney" songwriting partnership.

Now, a lot of Beatles-fans and followers have for once sided with Yoko on this issue. That the phrase "Lennon and McCartney" is a holy phrase and should not be touched. There are three reasons for this. Number one: "Lennon and McCartney" sounds better than "McCartney and Lennon". This is true, just like the names "John, Paul, George and Ringo" sounds a lot better than "George, John, Ringo and Paul". Number two: Nostalgia. We are used to hearing the words "Lennon and McCartney" like that, and it brings back memories, touches a nerve. Number three: It's alphabetically the correct order. L before M. Funny no one has brought this argument to attention concerning "George, John, Paul and Ringo".

Another argument that has been presented in the ongoing debate is this: Legend has it that early on before they were published anywhere, John and Paul used to write down the words and chords to their compositions in Paul's school exercisebook, starting every page with the signature "Another Lennon and McCartney original". This is how Paul himself remembers it in the "Anthology" book: "We wrote songs together. I wrote them down in an exercise book and above them it always said, 'Another Lennon/McCartney original.' Next page, 'Another Lennon/McCartney original.'" Unfortunately, this exercisebook was thrown into the dustbin one day in the sixties when Jane Asher (Paul's fiancee at the time) was housecleaning. So we can't check. This is a quote I found on the subject when searching the internet, it's by John Lennon from a 1980 interview, courtesy of the book "Lennon and McCartney" by Malcolm Doney (1982):

"Paul and I made a deal when we were fifteen," revealed Lennon in 1980. "There was never a legal deal between us, just a deal we made when we decided to write together that we put both our names on it, no matter what."

So, he doesn't mention who's on bass... er... I mean who comes first.


Let's face it: This whole debate isn't about right or wrong. In an ideal world Paul would have his way. It's what's just. But he has the odds against him. The deal that he and John made when they were little boys is so cute, that the public has decided to stick to it. And the phrase "Lennon and McCartney" is so familiar throughout the world that it has practically entered the english language dictionaries. And the media has a fun time juxtaposing the names of Abbott and Costello, poking fun at Paul's feeble attempt to put the record straight. Myths have a way of surviving correction. Even now, only die hard Beatles aficionados are convinced that the title of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was based on a drawing by a five year old boy. The rest of the world knows that it was LSD. Which will probably be carved into the stone of future history books. It's not easy being a legend in one's own lifetime, Sir Paul.




TIMELINE

1956 (unknown date): Paul McCartney (14) writes his first song: "I lost my little girl". The same year he writes "When I'm 64" as an instrumental.

1957 (July 6): John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet. Lennon is impressed with Paul's abilities to tune a guitar, to remember all the words to Eddie Cochran's "20 Flight Rock" and the fact that he has composed songs of his own. Some time later, John asks Paul to join his skiffle group, the Quarrymen. John starts to compose songs of his own, "Hello Little Girl" being his first effort. John and Paul starts to help each other out with the songs, forming a partnership. The two young men agrees that whenever they have written a new song, both their names shall appear as composers. This remains a secret for years.

1962 (October 5): The Beatles release the "Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You" - single. Both songs are credited to "Lennon - McCartney". A misprint on the test-pressing, "Lennon - McArtney" has been corrected before the official release.



1963 (January 11): The Beatles release the "Please Please Me/Ask Me Why" - single. Both songs are credited to "McCartney - Lennon".



1963 (March 27): The Beatles release the "Please Please Me" album. All original songs are credited to "McCartney - Lennon", including Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You.



1963 (April 11): The Beatles release the "From Me To You/Thank You Girl" - single. Both songs are credited to "McCartney - Lennon".




1963 (April 27): John Lennon and Brian Epstein have a 12 day vacation in Spain. The other three Beatles spend their holidays in the Canary Island of Tenerife.

1963 (date unknown): Paul turns up late for a business meeting and is informed by John and Brian that the songwriting credit shall from now on be reversed. He protests, but is in minority.

1963 (August 23): The Beatles release the "She Loves You" - single. Both songs are credited to "Lennon - McCartney". It sells. In droves. It is to become the all-time best selling single of Great Britain, and holds that title for 14 years. (Eventually being outsold by a Paul McCartney - single in 1977, "Mull of Kintyre") Unfortunately for Paul, the success of 'She Loves You' and subsequent Beatles - releases make this constellation of their names a 'household word'.

1965 (February 4): the company MacLen (Music) Ltd. is formed to handle the business of licensing the rights of the Paul and John compositions to Northern Songs, and to collect 50% of the publishing royalties due to Lennon and McCartney from Northern Songs. The remaining 50% of the publishing revenue goes to Northern Songs, then still jointly owned by the Beatles, their manager and Dick James.


The ever thorough Germans struggled to keep track of the changing credits: This is from their album "And Now: The Beatles" (also released as "The Beatles Beat").


1970: The Beatles split up, and the songwriting partnership of John and Paul is no more. They start releasing new songs under their own names, or as "Paul and Linda McCartney" or "Lennon - Ono".

1976 (Dec 10): Paul McCartney releases the triple concert album "Wings Over America". 5 songs on this albums are credited to "McCartney/Lennon". John Lennon does not complain about this. Probably since these five songs were mainly Paul - compositions, anyway. And since it's not a "Beatles-release", Paul can write up their names in any way he choses to, so long as both names are listed.

1980 (unknown date): John Lennon reveals in an interview: "Paul and I made a deal when we were fifteen(sic). There was never a legal deal between us, just a deal we made when we decided to write together that we put both our names on it, no matter what."

1980 (Dec 8): John Lennon is killed by a deranged madman on the street outside his home in New York. His wife Yoko Ono is a horrified witness to the senseless crime. The world mourns. The spirit of the sixties dies.

1983 (unknown date): Michael Jackson buys Northern Songs.

1987 (various dates): The Beatles' recordings are released on compact discs. The "Please Please Me" album CD and the "Please Please Me" and "From Me To You" single-cd's are still credited as "McCartney - Lennon".



1990 - 1996: The 1927 Songwriting Act comes into play, regarding Yoko Ono's ownership of the "McCartney-Lennon" or "Lennon-McCartney" songs.
That act gives heirs of a songwriter all the rights to his or her music once the original copyrights run out. It doesn't matter if they've been sold to someone else. If the songwriter died during the copyright term, once the term runs out the new owner loses the rights and they revert back to the heirs. Because John Lennon died, it didn't matter that the rights to the songs were with Michael Jackson. Once the copyrights had to be renewed, Jackson lost Lennon's portion; they reverted to Yoko Ono and her son, Sean. The Beatles songs were under 28-year copyright protection. So songs in 1962 had to be renewed in 1990, and so on. When they were renewed, Lennon's ownership — which had been sold to Jackson — started going to Yoko. This meant that because John was dead, he was no longer under Jackson's agreement. McCartney, however, was. So half of his portion of royalties from the Beatles catalog goes to Jackson (or now, Sony/ATV Music Publishing).

1995 (unknown date): Apple is about to release The Beatles' "Anthology 2", on which there is a version of "Yesterday". Paul makes a request to Yoko Ono, who is now his partner in the MacLen (Music) Ltd. company (there are three shareholders and five shares, Paul and Yoko has two each and Apple holds the fifth share), to have McCartney's name put first on the song. Yoko agrees at first, but later calls back to reverse her decision.

2002 (Nov 10): Paul McCartney releases the double concert CD "Back in the U.S." in Japan. It is later released in other territories as well, including USA, but excluding Europe. The "Lennon-McCartney" - songs and the one "McCartney - Lennon" -song ("I Saw Her Standing There") on the album is credited like this: "Composed by Paul McCartney & John Lennon".

2002 (Nov 11): The Abbey Road Beatles fansite on the web reports about the composing credits, choosing not to comment.

2002 (Nov 12): UK Newspaper the Sun reports on the switching of credits on "Back In the U.S." in the article "So now it's McCartney & Lennon". Britain yawns.

2002 (Dec 7): Rolling Stone.com reports that the switch of songwriting credits on Paul McCartney's recently released "Back in the U.S." CD has ignited a new battle with Yoko Ono. Ono lawyer Peter Shukat tells the paper, "What he did was absolutely inappropriate. John and Paul had an agreement. This is very petty." And Yoko Ono is quoted as saying, "John and Paul often disagreed on which songs were written by whom. If John was here now, they could fight it out, or maybe they could never agree. But the important point is that John has to be here. He is not." Though McCartney doesn't give a response to the paper, his spokesman, Geoff Baker tells Rolling Stone, John and Paul "had agreed in the Sixties that they could switch the names whenever they felt like it."

2002 (Dec 12) The story is picked up by Associated Press. In the following days, the news item is picked up by newspapers all over the world and the journalists have a field day, juxtaposing the names of Abbott and Costello etc, poking fun at Paul's futile attempt to set the record straight. Speculations are made in the press, that Yoko Ono is going to sue Paul for the "credit switch". No action is being taken by Yoko, other than having her lawyers "see into it".

2002 (Dec 18): Paul is forced to release a press statement:

"The truth is that this is much ado about nothing and there is no need for anybody to get their knickers in a twist. I'm quite happy with the situation and I'm not worried about what Yoko Ono is saying - as I am more excited about now, rather than then, having finished a great tour and winning the No.1 tour of the year. The people whose opinion matters to me have had their say."

"But I think it's time that I made it clear what the facts are over this long-running and rather silly dispute."

"John and I wrote many songs together but in an article in Playboy magazine John very accurately divided the credit for each of the Beatles songs between us - 'I wrote this; this one was Paul's' etc. - and when I ran the exercise for myself a few years back for Barry Miles's book 'Many Years From Now' I found that John and I were in complete agreement as to who had done what."

"At the very beginning, the first time this ever came up was at a meeting at Brian Epstein's office in Albemarle Street in London between Brian, John and myself. I arrived at the meeting to find that Brian and John had already independently decided the the billing would be 'songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney'."

"I said 'What about McCartney/Lennon?' They said 'We'll do this for now and we can change it around to be fair at any point in the future'.

"Been reassured by this, I let the matter go and our songs became known as Lennon/McCartney songs, a fact I was perfectly happy about.

"Many years later, when we were involved in 'The Beatles Anthology' project, instead of using the term Lennon/McCartney, the songs were been credited as 'written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney'. I made a request to Yoko Ono to have my name put first on the song 'Yesterday', which John had often admitted he had nothing whatsoever to do with. "

"I felt that after 30 years this would be a nice gesture and something that might be easy for Yoko to agree with. At first she said yes, but then she rang back a couple of hours later and reversed her decision."

"The fact is that it was not a decision that was hers to make, but because of her objection I was not allowed to have my name in front of John's."

"Many people say to me that it doesn't matter and in many ways I agree, but an incident that happened recently made me wonder whether it wouldn't be such a bad idea to have each song labelled accurately so that people would know which of the two composers had the bigger input in which song."

"Late one night, I was in an empty bar flicking through the bar pianist's music book when I came across 'Hey Jude written by John Lennon'. If there is an argument for 'correct labelling' I think this is probably the best one. Computers these days often allow certain space for labelling of any item and as we all know the end of the label often gets cut off a sentence or title. For instance, I recently went to see a film which the tickets described as 'Miss Congenia'."

"I personally don't see any harm in John's songs such as 'Strawberry Fields' and 'Help' being labelled 'by John Lennon and Paul McCartney' and my songs such as 'Let It Be' and 'Eleanor Rigby' being labelled 'by Paul McCartney and John Lennon'. It lays out the information so that no one is in any doubt as to who did what - and I have also pointed out to Yoko Ono that I'm happy for our co-written songs to have John's name in front of mine."

"I think it is fair and accurate for the songs that John declared were mine to carry my name first. This isn't anything I'm going to lose any sleep over, nor is it anything that will cause litigation, but it seems to be harmless to me after more than 30 years of it been the other way for people like Yoko who have benefitted, and who continues to benefit from, my past efforts to be a little generous and to not have a problem with this suggestion of how to simply map out for those who do not know who wrote which of the songs."

Thursday 26 November 2009

Beatles in 24 bit


It was recently brought to my attention that the new Apple USB Memory stick containing all the Beatles remasters offers a sonic advantage over their CD equivalents. The memory stick contains 44kHz FLAC files, but they are in 24 bit of superior audio quality in comparison to CDs (which are 44kHz/16bit, which is all a standard CD can handle).
This is the second time we have been offered music in such a high quality from The Beatles. The first one was when the DeLuxe version of the LOVE album contained a DVD with all the songs from the regular CD in 5.1 surround sound and 24 bit, both in DVD Audio as well as in the standard DVD format with two-channel stereo (48 kHz 16-bit PCM) and 5.1-channel surround (448 kbit/s Dolby Digital and 754 kbit/s DTS). Ringo Starr has also offered us higher quality when his 2005 album Choose Love was issued as either a 1 DVD + 1CD package or as a hybrid CD/DVD disc, where both sides were playable. The DVD contained the same songs in 24 bit.
Now The Beatles has done it again and released a higher than CD quality version of their albums, although in a far less accessible format. Due to the incompatibility of FLAC in a standard home audio set up, you're going to have to plug your computer in to your amplifier and either play the FLAC's in a FLAC compatible media player, or convert the FLAC's to WAV, which can be played by most media players.
Or, if you don't want to connect your computer to your audio system, you can convert the files to WAV and author either a DVD-Audio or a DVD-Video (with just a still picture) and use the WAV as the soundtrack. This can then be played back on your audio system, provided you already have your DVD player connected to it (and we all have, don't we?). I'm hoping someone out there will do this and make it available, so I can sample the difference!

Beatles Around the World


A Columbian Beatles album

List of countries who released Beatles records in the sixties:
Angola
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Bolivia
Brasil
Canada
Chile
Columbia
Congo
Costa Rica
Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia at that time)
Denmark
Dominican Republic
East Germany (DDR)
Egypt
Equador
Finland
France
Greece
Guatemala
Holland
Hong Kong
Hungary
India
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Lebanon
Malaysia
Malta
Mexico
Nigeria
Nicaragua
Norway
New Zealand
Pakistan
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Portugal
Singapore
South Africa
Spain
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Thailand
Taiwan
Turkey
UK
Uruguay
USA
Yugoslavia
West Germany (BRD)
Venezuela
Zimbabwe (South Rhodesia at that time)

The list was put together by Polish Beatles collector Piotr Kaczmarczyk. You can find a work-in-progress of his Chronology at this Polish Beatles web site.

Backstage Auctions preview


Backstage auctions event "The Rockin' Holiday Auction" is on from December 6 - 13th, 2009, and this Thanksgiving Weekend the auction lots have been put on display for preview. Lots of memorabilia from many artists are being presented, but we're of course going to focus on the Beatles lots.
It seems that the company has acquired an entire collection from a Beatles fan, because here's stuff that you would expect when visiting a Beatles fanatic. Records, magazines, books and promotional items.
Aside from that, some professional photos from the solo years are also up for sale at the auction, and here are some of those.




Head on over to Backstage Auctions to feast your eyes on some of the stuff they have for sale. Perhaps you'll find something to bid on?

Wednesday 25 November 2009

The Beatles Box of 1981

The Beatles From Liverpool

Back in 1981, World Records, EMI's mail order division put together a boxed set of eight newly compiled Beatles albums.
The set was advertised vigourously in the national press from 5th November 1980 through into 1981. This means it was at the forefront right across the period of John's murder, and therefore sales must have been quite good, but as this box set was sold only by mail order the figures did not qualify for chart entry, and consequently are not publicly known.
All the songs throughout the eight albums are arranged chronologically, and the covers reflect this, in that each has a picture from the appropriate period on the front, and a well-written biography of the period by Hugh Marshall on the rear.
The Box itself is well designed looking like a wooden crate (see detail above), with plenty of information and sold for £29:75.
And Simon Sinclair who compiled these albums seems to have known what he was doing, because he has sprinkled the albums with some interesting variations from the regular versions of the songs.
Main track differences from the regular Beatles albums in the UK:

  • Across The Universe - (Version 2) produced by Phil Spector.
  • All My Loving - begins with five taps on Ringo's "hi-hat" cymbal.
  • All You Need Is Love - the mono version.
  • And I Love Her - contains six bars of acoustic guitar in the fadeout instead of the usual four.
  • Baby You're A Rich Man - the true stereo version, previously found just on the German Magical Mystery Tour LP.
  • The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill - appears as it does on The Beatles ("white album"), minus the opening guitar obbligato.
  • The End/Her Majesty - the pause between the two songs lasts for only five seconds. On Abbey Road, the time between tracks is fifteen seconds.
  • Get Back - the album version, produced by Phil Spector.
  • I'm Only Sleeping - the extremely rare version with the slightly delayed guitar solo, previously found just on the U.S. stereo eight-track tape edition of "Yesterday" And Today.
  • I Am The Walrus - the composite version put together by Capitol Records engineers John Palladino and George Irwin for the U.S. commercial Rarities.
  • I Feel Fine - the true stereo version that begins with tapping drum sticks, whispering, coughing and Ringo closing his "hi-hat" cymbal.
  • Let It Be (Version 2) "reproduced for disc" by Phil Spector.
  • Love Me Do - (Version 1) the rare one with Ringo on drums.
  • Penny Lane - the composite version from the U.S. commercial Rarities.
  • She's A Woman - the true stereo version previously available just in Australia and in Singapore/Malaysia/Hong Kong.
  • Strawberry Fields Forever - the true stereo version.
  • Thank You Girl - the original mono version without John's extra harmonica fills.
  • This Boy - the mono version.

    Full track list
    Album 1
    Album 1
    Side One :
    Love Me Do - (2:19) - Original single version w/Ringo on drums
    P.S. I Love You - (2:02)
    I Saw Her Standing There - (2:50)
    Please Please Me - (2:00)
    Misery - (1:43)
    Do You Want To Know A Secret - (1:55)
    A Taste Of Honey - (2:02)
    Twist And Shout - (2:32)

    Side Two :
    From Me To You - (1:55)
    Thank You Girl - (2:01) - Original mono version without John's extra harmonica fills
    She Loves You - (2:18)
    It Won't Be Long - (2:11)
    Please Mr. Postman - (2:34)
    All My Loving - (2:04) - features a 6 tap hi hat intro
    Roll Over Beethoven - (2:44)
    Money (That's What I Want) - (2:47)

    Album 2
    Album 2
    Side Three :
    I Want To Hold Your Hand - (2:24)
    This Boy - (2:11) - mono version
    Can't Buy Me Love - (2:15)
    You Can't Do That - (2:33)
    A Hard Day's Night - (2:32)
    I Should Have Known Better - (2:42)
    If I Fell - (2:16)
    And I Love Her - (2:47) - final riff is repeated 6 times (instead of the normal 4)

    Side Four :
    Things We Said Today - (2:35)
    I'll Be Back - (2:22)
    Long Tall Sally - (1:58)
    I Call Your Name - (2:02)
    Matchbox - (1:37)
    Slow Down - (2:54)
    She's A Woman - (2:57) - True stereo version
    I Feel Fine - (2:19) - true stereo version that begins with tapping drum sticks, whispers etc.

    Album 3
    Album 3
    Side Five :
    Eight Days A Week - (2:43)
    No Reply - (2:11)
    I'm A Loser - (2:31)
    I'll Follow The Sun - (1:46)
    Mr. Moonlight - (2:35)
    Every Little Thing - (2:01)
    I Don't Want To Spoil The Party - (2:33)
    Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey - (2:37)

    Side Six :
    Ticket To Ride - (3:03)
    I'm Down - (2:30)
    Help! - (2:16)
    The Night Before - (2:33)
    You've Got To Hide Your Love Away - (2:08)
    I Need You - George Harrison - (2:28)
    Another Girl - (2:02)
    You're Going To Lose That Girl - (2:18)

    Album 4
    Album 4
    Side Seven :
    Yesterday - (2:04)
    Act Naturally - (2:27)
    Tell Me What You See - (2:35)
    It's Only Love - (1:53)
    You Like Me Too Much - (2:34)
    I've Just Seen A Face - (2:04)
    Day Tripper - (2:37) - Different stereo mix (also found on "Yesterday & Today")
    We Can Work It Out - (2:10)

    Side Eight :
    Michelle - (2:40)
    Drive My Car - (2:25)
    Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - (2:00)
    You Won't See Me - (3:19)
    Nowhere Man - (2:40)
    Girl - (2:26)
    I'm Looking Through You - (2:20)
    In My Life - (2:23)

    Album 5
    Album 5
    Side Nine :
    Paperback Writer - (2:25) - Remixed stereo version (Also found on the "Hey Jude" album)
    Rain - (2:59)
    Here, There And Everywhere - (2:29)
    Taxman - George Harrison - (2:36)
    I'm Only Sleeping - (2:58) - Extremely rare version with the slightly delayed guitar solo
    Good Day Sunshine - (2:08)
    Yellow Submarine - (2:40)

    Side Ten :
    Eleanor Rigby - (2:11)
    And Your Bird Can Sing - (2:02)
    For No One - (2:03)
    Doctor Robert - (2:14)
    Got To Get You Into My Life - (2:27)
    Penny Lane - (3:00) - Composite version taken from the US rarities album
    Strawberry Fields Forever - (4:05) - True stereo version

    Album 6
    Album 6
    Side Eleven :
    Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - (1:59)
    With A Little Help From My Friends - (2:46)
    Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - (3:25)
    Fixing A Hole - (2:35)
    She's Leaving Home - (3:24)
    Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite - (2:36)
    A Day In The Life - (5:03)

    Side Twelve :
    When I'm Sixty-Four - (2:38)
    Lovely Rita - (2:43)
    All You Need Is Love - (3:57) - original mono version
    Baby, You're A Rich Man - (3:07) - the true stereo version
    Magical Mystery Tour - (2:48)
    Your Mother Should Know - (2:33)
    The Fool On The Hill - (3:00)
    I Am The Walrus - (4:35) - composite version also found on the US "Rarities" album

    Album 7
    Album 7
    Side Thirteen :
    Hello Goodbye - (3:24)
    Lady Madonna - (2:17)
    Hey Jude - (7:11)
    Revolution - (3:22)
    Back In The U.S.S.R. - (2:45)
    Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - (3:10)
    While My Guitar Gently Weeps - (4:46)

    Side Fourteen :
    The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill - (3:05) - Without guitar intro
    Happiness Is A Warm Gun - (2:47)
    Martha My Dear - (2:28)
    I'm So Tired - (2:01)
    Piggies - George Harrison - (2:04)
    Don't Pass Me By - Richard Starkey - (3:52)
    Julia - (2:57)
    All Together Now - (2:08)

    Album 8
    Album 8
    Side Fifteen :
    Get Back - (3:09) - Album version, produced by Phil Spector
    Don't Let Me Down - (3:34)
    The Ballad Of John And Yoko - (3:51)
    Across The Universe - (3:51) - Version 2, produced by George Martin
    For You Blue - (2:33)
    Two Of Us - (3:33)
    The Long And Winding Road - (3:40)
    Let It Be - (4:01)

    Side Sixteen :
    Come Together - (4:16)
    Something - (2:59)
    Maxwell's Silver Hammer - (3:24)
    Octopus's Garden - (2:49)
    Here Comes The Sun - (3:04)
    Because - (2:45)
    Golden Slumbers - (1:31)
    Carry That Weight - (1:37)
    The End - (2:04)
    Her Majesty - (0:23)

    Japan poster
    The box was available in several countries. In Japan, a poster (depicted above) was included in the box.
    The album box set was deleted in the UK in 1982, only to reappear in July 1987 as an eight cassette box, called "The Last Chance Edition".

    Due to good sales, the boxed set is fairly common, and shouldn't command too high a price, although some people will always have the nerve, or the excuse of ignorance.
  • Strawberry Fields Forever



    The music video (or "promotional film" as they were called back then) for Strawberry Fields Forever was filmed in Knole Park, Sevenoaks, Kent on 30 and 31 January 1967. Directed by Peter Goldman.
    Peter Goldman - A Swedish pop film maker who worked for Swedish Television during the 60's and 70's tells his story behind the making of the Strawberry Fields Forever film.



    "Everything went so fast. It wasn't until I sat on the plane for London I realised what I was up to. I felt the nervousity and the excitement crawling under the skin. How in the world should I be able to make something enough funny-bizzare-cleaver-crazy-sofisticated to satisfy The Beatles."



    "John, Paul, George and Ringo liked good food and they did lose their temper if they didn't get their special food even during the shootings. So, their big metal coloured catering bus followed them wherever they went. Containing a staff of cooks made the tables with their favourite food, baked in a gratin-disk with parsley over it or the special chicken that they liked of something else that they ordered."
    "-The food was served in a special order. First John, Paul, George and Ringo were served, then me, the head director, and after me my assistant and then the other assistants and so on."



    "- Ringo had a dog named 'Tiger' that he was very proud of. Tiger wasn't the most terrifying dog in his class, not at all. It was the smallest and the most well cared for little white poodle I've ever seen. Paul had a dog that looked like a small pony; named Martha."



    "The film was filmed on an estate in Kent. The surroundings were incredibly English with a great old castle and hundreds of semi-tame deers that were strolling around in an enormous park. We built a giant instrument that actually was an old torn-apart piano with strings up in the air. The wind played on the strings that kept falling all the time and made a mess."



    "In John's specially equipped Rolls Royce the fab four had a real big laugh. Through a microphone and a loudspeaker they tried to cheer me up with comments and advises that made an echo out over the neighbourhood."
    This gave an unexpected result. A lot of truant boys from an boarding school nearby came to see what it was all about. Boys in all ages dressed in uniforms and little caps hunting for autographs and souvenirs. A piece of a cigarette or an autograph by Peter Goldman was good enough. Peter could just establish the fact that the Beatles fever seemed to rise every year.
    The Beatles talked to the arriving fans and John took his film camera and filmed the crowd. The truant boys from the boarding school weren't as keen as The Beatles to listen to their director.
    - Jump! said John. I want everybody to jump!
    Nobody jumped so John didn't get the scene he wanted on film. Instead, he had to be content with filming trees, the piano strings and other things that he felt that he should immortalise.
    All four Beatles had excellent film equipment at home, and Ringo proudly showed his 16 mm equipment to Peter. The Beatles were very patient actors in front of the camera. They were interested and competent in all things technical. There were cold winds blowing at the estate, but The Beatles kept the whole team in a good mood. In spite of frozen noses they were fooling around and always had encouraging things to say.
    In Strawberry Fields Forever there are seven changes of clothes. Four red coats was all that they had to buy specially for the film, the rest came from John, Paul, George and Ringo's own wardrobes. Peculiar combinations occurred. Ringo loved an old uniform coat. John changed between a knee long beige jersey, a scarf and a preacher's coat that he originally had hired for masquerade, but hadn't been able to divorce.

    Above is the original edit of the promotional film for Strawberry Fields Forever. The one used in the Anthology DVD was further embellished by inserting outtake footage and adding colour video effects, but this is how it looked originally. The sound is taken from the 2009 stereo CD remaster of the song, from The Beatles' album "Magical Mystery Tour".
    The video for "Strawberry Fields Forever", along with it's companion video "Penny Lane" (the other side of the 45rpm single release), was selected by New York's MoMA as two of the most influential music videos in the late 1960s. Both films were originally broadcast on February 16th on BBC's Top Of The Pops in the UK and later in the US on February 25th 1967, on the variety show The Hollywood Palace.
    Here's the story of one of the school boys who secured a souvenir from the film shooting in Knole Park.

    Monday 23 November 2009

    Children in Need


    In a new animated video for charity, Ringo Starr returns to do the voice of Thomas the tank engine.

    Please support by donating on the official BBC site
    The Sun: About the project, and a guide to the characters

    Experiment in Television:Music!


    Music! was released in 1968 and it is a celebration of music in Britain, ranging from Tippett, The Beatles, folk clubs, brass bands right through to bell ringing.
    The Beatles footage captures rehearsals for "Hey Jude", and was filmed on Tuesday 30th of July, 1968. The Beatles recorded takes 7 through to 25, though according to Mark Lewisohn, it was not The Beatles' intention to capture the perfect recording yet. But this session was arranged as more than a means of rehearsing "Hey Jude", it was also arrenged so that the Beatles could be filmed for part of this documentary. The resulting film only includes around six minutes of Beatles footage, compiled from several hours of shooting, showing The Beatles busking, chatting and rehearsing. The musical takes recorded during this session featured just piano, drums and acoustic guitar - so there was no role for George Harrison. Music! showed him in the control room of studio 2 with George Martin and Ken Scott. "The film crew was supposed to work in such a way that no-one would realize they were there," recalls Scott. "But of course they were getting in everyone's way and everyone was getting uptight about it." Most of the footage used were from take 9 of "Hey Jude".
    Part 2 of 5. This part includes footage of The Beatles and Yehudi Menuhin.

    Part 4 of 5. This part includes footage of The Beatles (Hey Jude) and the Black Dyke Mills Band.

    EXPERIMENT IN TELEVISION: MUSIC!
    Credits:
    Director: TUCHNER, Michael
    Production Company: James Archibald Productions
    Sponsor: National Music Council of Great Britain
    Producer: ARCHIBALD, James
    Script: ARCHIBALD, James
    Photography: WILSON, Ian
    Editor: HARRIS, Gregory
    Sound: SUTTON, Kevin

    The Beatles:RockBand CD's



    Artwork for the Abbey Road RockBand CD


    Artwork for the Sgt Pepper RockBand CD

    Thursday 19 November 2009

    McCartney/Beatles: I'm Down


    "I'm Down" from the new Paul McCartney Live CD/DVD Good Evening New York City takes footage from The Beatles performing the song at Shea Stadium in 1965 and mixes it with footage of McCartney and band performing the same song at Citi Field in 2009. "I'm Down" was the finale for the Beatles' concert in 1965, and McCartney first performed the song solo at the Concert For New York City in 2001. After that, it hasn't been performed until this year's Citi Field gigs, but I'm hoping it will still make the set list when McCartney commences his tour of Europe on December 2nd in Hamburg. Here's the full Beatles version:


    M. Clay Adams, the former owner of Clayco Films, produced many film segments for the Ed Sullivan Show during the 1960s. When Ed Sullivan’s production company collaborated with The Beatles to produce a documentary of their legendary 1965 performance at Shea Stadium, Clay Adams was the manager of production operations for the film.

    At the time, Adams, who died last year at the age of 99, had been in the film business for over 25 years. He had a young teenage son, Michael, who was a huge Beatles fan. In February 1964, Michael was one of the lucky ones who attended the live February 9, 1964 Beatles debut on the Ed Sullivan Show as well as The Beatles dress rehearsal (the segment filmed for their third Ed Sullivan appearance which aired on February 23, 1964). He actually got to meet The Beatles after the dress rehearsal. He also attended both Beatles concerts at Shea Stadium in 1965 and 1966.

    So after his dad, Clay, flew to London to work with George Martin and The Beatles on the over-dubs to the Shea Stadium film soundtrack, Michael was extremely anxious to hear about the trip. In the lost art of letter writing, Clay typed up a letter dated January 10, 1966 to his son, who was busy in school, and told him intimate details of working with George Martin and The Beatles in the recording studio. He also revealed his personal observations on each of the Fab Four.

    For example, Clay Adams, describes his first impressions of Paul McCartney:

    Paul was the first one to get there, right on the dot of 9:30. He came in with a short black fur coat and needing a shave. But he was full of fun and ready to get down to work right away. Actually what the boys and George Martin really felt was wrong with the Shea soundtrack was only that it was lacking in the “low end” and drums in some places. The bass guitar was not as loud as on their records. So while we were waiting for the other boys to arrive, we over-dubbed “I’m Down”, “Dizzy Miss Lizzy”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, and “Baby’s in Black” with Paul only.

    Readers can get a sense of what the Beatles daily lives were like from this historic letter. This excerpt almost seems like a scene out of A Hard Day’s Night as Adams writes:

    Meanwhile nobody seemed to know where the rest of the boys were. Every time I’d ask what has happened to John, George and Ringo – George Martin would say he hadn’t the slightest idea except that Paul was living in the city nearby while the other boys had to come from out of town. Finally at about 10:30 in bounced the other three, all laughing and quite unaware that they had been keeping us in suspense.

    What’s most fascinating about Adams’ letter is how he truly was a “fly on the wall” during a Beatles’ recording session.

    All four of the boys were really great. They worked hard, did anything we asked them to and cooperated in every way. Also, they are such great “pros” and know their own arrangements so well that the recording session went much easier and faster than I ever anticipated. John was quite anxious to do “Ticket to Ride” better so we did that completely over and our track of “Help!” had a big drop-out in it which we had tried to fix up in New York – so we did that one all over. The rest were merely fixed here and there to fortify the Shea track. Paul loved my word “fortify” and whenever there was a lull he would say to me, “How are we doing Clay – did we fortify that one okay?”

    Adams’ observations about the individual Beatles are quite insightful as well:

    It was fun between recording sessions. Almost invariably Paul and John would immediately start tinkering around with some new musical ideas for new songs on their guitars. As soon as one would play a few notes, the other would pick up an accompaniment no matter how complex the arrangement. Meanwhile, George Harrison – who I called a frustrated drummer – would be trying to teach Ringo some new trick beat that he had thought up. They are all constantly fooling around with the other’s instruments. Ringo fooling with a guitar or the piano. George on the drums, etc. I thought Paul was the most musical though. When we had finished the over-dubbing I sat with him at the piano while he improvised. He has a great sense of harmony and phrasing. You should have heard his improvised chords fooling around with that song that’s my favorite from “Oliver” – I can’t think of the title.

    The Beatles at Shea Stadium 50-minute documentary concert film was first aired on the BBC on May 1, 1966. The film was aired in the United States on ABC on January 10, 1967. However, since then, the film has never been commercially released to the public.
    Michael Adams commented on the status of the film:

    The film was a joint Sullivan Productions and NEMS venture. My Dad provided the film and sound crew and everything that came afterward until it was a finished product. When both parties had signed off on the completed film, two masters were made. Copies were then made and were presented to Sullivan Productions and NEMS for their prospective broadcasts. My Dad hung on to the masters and waited for the companies involved to follow up and ask for them.

    In 1987, Paul McCartney phoned my Dad and requested a master for Apple. At the time, Paul said that they were interested in releasing it. They subsequently released a few songs on the Beatles Anthology. They [Apple] still have that master and who knows, maybe one day they will release it. In the meantime it keeps getting bootlegged. There’s boot copies of the US and the UK telecasts floating around out there (as well as that 2nd master).
    Source: Daytrippin'

    Wednesday 18 November 2009

    Nowhere Boy - Soundtrack album

    Nowhere Boy, the new biopic about the formative years of John Lennon has not been universally praised. Originally based on Julia Baird's book about her half brother "Imagine This - Growing up with my brother John Lennon", the film diverges from the book towards the end, betraying Julia's scorching portrait of (Aunt) Mimi and replacing it with a rose-tinted view of her. This eventually lead Baird to distance herself from the movie. Native Liverpudlians of the right age has also criticized the way the city is portrayed in the film. But anyway, here's the soundtrack album, due out December 14th.

    CD1 - Original Soundtrack

    Wild One - Jerry Lee Lewis
    Mr Sandman - Dickie Valentine
    Rocket 88 - Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats
    Shake, Rattle & Roll - Elvis Presley
    Hard Headed Woman - Wanda Jackson
    I Put A Spell On You - Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
    Maggie May - The Nowhere Boys
    That’ll Be The Day - The Nowhere Boys
    Rockin’ Daddy - Eddie Bond & The Stompers
    Twenty Flight Rock - Eddie Cochran
    That’s Alright Mamma - The Nowhere Boys
    Movin and Groovin - The Nowhere Boys
    Raunchy - The Nowhere Boys
    Hound Dog - Big Mama Thornton
    Be-Bop-A-Lula - Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps
    Hello Little Girl - Aaron Johnson
    In Spite Of All The Danger - The Nowhere Boys
    Mother - John Lennon

    CD2 - (Tracks subject to final clearance)

    Elvis Presley - Baby Let’s Play House
    The Isley Brothers -Twist & Shout
    Duane Eddy - Rebel Rouser
    Charlie Rich - She Loved Everybody But Me
    Lonnie Donegan - Putting on the Style
    Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue
    Frankie Vaughan - These Dangerous Years
    Dale Hawkins - Susie-Q
    Barrett Strong - Money (That’s What I Want)
    The Del Vikings - Come Go With Me
    Bill Haley - Rock Around the Clock
    Lloyd Price - Stagger Lee
    Little Richard - Rip It Up
    Alligator Charles - See You Later
    Little Richard - Long Tall Sally
    Chan Romero - The Hippy Hippy Shake
    Buddy Knox - Party Doll
    Shirley & Lee - Let the Good Times Roll
    Fats Domino - Ain’t That A Shame
    Everly Brothers - Bye, Bye Love
    Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought The Law
    Jimmy Lloyd - I Got A Rocket In My Pocket

    So let's hope those oldies are in original versions and we're looking forward to hear the cover of Lennon's first composition "Hello Little Girl" and the 1958 Quarrymen composition "In Spite of All The Danger".

    The Beatles' Swedish Scrap Book


    This week-end there was a record fair in Oslo. I didn't buy any records, but I came home with this 120 plus pages scrap book, obviously put together by a swedish fan back in 1964. The big picture above shows The Beatles arriving at Arlanda Airport outside Stockholm in 1964.

    Some of the images are from Beatles books of the time, and some are from newspapers and magazines. Some are familiar, and some haven't been reprinted since.

    I thought I'd share some of these pages with you.

    On the beach and on stage

    Some of the pictures are from the swedish version of one of the two "Meet The Beatles" books.

    Champagne

    A page full of collector's cards

    Bespectacled trio, detail from the page below

    The Beatles in the USA

    I probably spent too much on this book (I paid around $100), but it's fun to sit down and look at all the labour of love some fan had when putting the book together in 1964.